IWONA GLINKA flautist

An award-winning Dr Dr Iwona Glinka is a soloist, educator, recording artist, orchestral and chamber musician and leading performer of new, experimental music. In 2016, she founded the Phasma-Music Ensemble, where she serves as its artistic director and also performs in numerous concerts as a member of the ensemble. As a soloist, chamber musician (including a member of the prestigious Hellenic Contemporary Music Ensemble o Theodore Antoniou), and orchestral musician (principal flutist of the Athens Symphony Orchestra), Iwona Glinka has performed in Greece—where she has lived since 1995—and in both the Americas, Europe, and Asia. She has sparked a keen interest in contemporary music, resulting in over 1,000 world premieres by composers from around the world, over 500 of whom have composed specially for her.

Iwona Glinka was born in Kwidzyn. She graduated from the State Secondary Music School in Gdańsk in the flute class of Elżbieta Czapor and continued her studies at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk in the class of Krzysztof Langman. In 2009, she received a doctorate in flute performance from the Academy of Music in Kraków. She earned her doctorate there based on a pioneering dissertation in Poland devoted to the interpretation of the flute works of Brian Ferneyhough, written under the supervision of Barbara Świątek-Żelazna, and a recital of works by this distinguished composer. In 2012, she received a doctorate in musicology from the National University of Athens, based on a dissertation on works for solo flute by contemporary Greek composers, written under the supervision of Apostolos Kostios.

From 1991 to 1994, thanks to a scholarship from Baloise Holding, she attended the Summer Courses at the Academy of Music in Lenk, Switzerland, where she studied under the supervision of Peter-Lukas Graf. In 1992, thanks to a scholarship awarded by the Mayor of Darmstadt, she attended the summer courses for New Music in that city, improving her interpretation skills with Pierre-Yves Artaud. In 1996, she continued her studies in Italy at the Fondazione Accademia Perosi International Academy of Music in Biella, again under the supervision of Peter-Lukas Graf, and from 1997 in Paris at the invitation of Pierre-Yves Artaud at the École Normale de Musique de Paris.

In addition to her regular performances, Iwona Glinka has been selected as a special guest performer at numerous musical events, such as: the 33rd and 34th edition of The Days of New Music Festival (2024, 2025, Chisinau, Moldova), the 43rd International Festival of Music Art “Virtuosos” (2024, Lviv, Ukraine), the International Festival of Krakow Composers (2021, Poland), "Music Together Wherever" 2021 Mid-Atlantic Flute Convention (Washington, United States), the Ibla Grand Prize Winners Tour (2018, Carnegie Hall, United States), the International Conference “Research Hands on Flute” (2017, Aveiro, Portugal), the National Flute Association Convention (2016, San Diego, United States), the Canadian Flute Association Convention. (2015, Toronto, Canada) V and X Sacred Music of Patmos (2005, 2010, Greece), Electro Media Works (2008, Athens, Greece), International James Galway Flute Festival (2007, performing at the special invitation of James Galway, Weggis, Switzerland), III and IV Mediterranean Contemporary Music Days (2005, 2006, Istanbul, Turkey), 3rd Flute Festival in Madison (2006, United States), Archanes Festival (2002, Crete, Greece), Days of Contemporary Music (2002, Athens, Greece), Schoenberg Festival (2001, Athens, Greece), International Flute Festival in Rome (1997, Italy), International Computer Music Conference (1997, Thessaloniki, Greece). 

She received major grants to commission, to record and to perform new works from: the Costopoulos Foundation (2020, 2017, 2013, Greece), the Norwegian Society of Composers (2017), the Adam Mickiewicz Institute Polish Culture Around the World (2015, 2016, Poland), the Britten-Pears Foundation (2012, UK), the RVW Trust Foundation (2012, UK), the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (2012, Canada).

Iwona Glinka has recorded and performed on seventy albums for European, Canadian, Polish and American labels such as Ars Sonora, Sarton Records, Universal, BMG, Auris Subtilise, Centaur Records, Irida, Magni, Legend, Phasma Music and others.

Iwona Glinka is the winner of several dozen awards, distinctions, grants and scholarships, including four Gold Medals - Awards of Excellence - Global Music Awards (2024, 2019, 2018, 2017), a nomination for the most prestigious International Classical Music Awards - ICMA 2018 (Contemporary Music), a nomination for the 18th Annual Independent Music Awards and two main statuettes of the International Competition Musical Eagles in the category of premiere performance of a work (2025, 2023).

Iwona Glinka is a Yamaha Artist and she maintains a Web presence at www.travlos-glinka.com.